Summary

A decent port limited by hardware

The Good

This port of the Windows 3.x game has attractive low-res graphics and animation. Attack cutscenes and the ability to customize (to a minor degree) your Metal Marines' equipment have been added to the SNES port.

The first/tutorial mission present in the Windows 3.x version is not in the SNES port, instead the SNES game starts on the second island of the Windows version.

The Bad

The limitations of the Super Nintendo console has apparently resulted in several changes to how the game plays and they are not very welcome.

For one, Metal Marine deployment by either yourself or the enemy is set by selecting a 5x5 area of the island in which to drop your Marines. Anything outside this area is ignored and useless for the duration of the skirmish.

The enemy will use this to its advantage by making sure the Marines adjacent to the target is outside of the combat area, so they can't defend your installations. This means the player has to spam Marines a lot more than in the Windows version where combat was not restricted to an 'arena'. This is costly and limits the player's options in-game.

It player's review is similarly restricted and scrolling is not particularly fast. This combined with the high frequency of attacks can mean that building more than a few installations at a time can be quite a chore.

The enemy is a great deal more aggressive than in the original Windows version, so this may be a port of the Metal Marines Deluxe game which did feature increased enemy aggression and a quicker pace of play.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately the SNES port of Metal Marines is a valiant attempt that falls short in some areas, but only in comparison to the Windows 3.x version, which chances are most people won't have played beforehand anyway. In terms of the SNES game library, Metal Marines is a great addition to the strategy genre and well worth a try.